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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28491276">Second Chances</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/melanoradrood/pseuds/melanoradrood'>melanoradrood</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hogwarts Eighth Year</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:47:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,365</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28491276</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/melanoradrood/pseuds/melanoradrood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco doesn't deserve to live with the Dark Mark on his arm. Hermione has a way to fix that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>128</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Second Chances</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompt: Dialogue: "Did you do all of this for me?"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>For the first time, Hermione actually doubts herself. Well, not the first time ever… she may have made a few, well, </span>
  <em>
    <span>poor</span>
  </em>
  <span> choices in the past, but in this endeavor, at least, she had never thought anything was wrong with it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After all, none of this had started as something for him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>No. Her research into blood curses entirely had to do with her. It had to do with the curse that was etched into her skin, her life only still surviving because she had managed to silence the caster first. It had continued with the curse in her arm, the scar still actively bleeding and never truly healing, never scabbing over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a pity that both of her attackers were dead. A cruel part of her wanted to drag the solution from them both, and if there was not one, well, Hermione would love to test her theories on them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, she had had to test them on herself, over and over again, until eventually, the ache that lived in her chest had begun to subside, and while the marks from Dolohov’s curse were unable to heal, the pain from them had disappeared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her arm had been something different. It was a true blood curse - Bellatrix had placed the curse in her blood as she drew it into Hermione’s skin, likely something poetic about the fact that she hated Hermione’s blood. That had meant understanding how blood in curses truly worked, how you could drain a curse without draining your own body of its life force. Separating it had led her down another path, more research…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Research into magical tattoos that could carry the magic of the one that designed the art. Magic that sounded eerily similar to Voldemort’s tattoo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For all that Hermione believed people deserve second chances, nothing in her believed that a Death Eater deserved to remove that mark from their skin - most had asked for it, begged for it even, had demanded proof that they were loyal etched into their very being. They had to kill for it, or so it was rumored. It had been a mark of honor for so many.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So many, save for one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had sat there, rigid, in the courtroom, while Narcissa Malfoy sat under veritaserum and told all about the night her son had been marked. It had been a requirement of Draco’s plea bargain - he would confess to building the wardrobe, would confess to letting the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, would even confess to attacking Dumbledore, and in exchange, he would be granted leniency for his age… a year of probation, five years of his wand being monitored, and heavy war reparations from the Malfoy Funds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In exchange, each of the Malfoys had to tell all. Yes, it was in a closed courtroom, but it was meant to shame them. Meant to show how weak they had truly been all along.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so, Narcissa had told all about how her son had begged to be spared, how she had begged for her son’s life, how he had been marked despite it all, a way to ensure that Draco would be loyal, that he could be summoned, that the Dark Lord would always know where he was. It was to ensure that the Malfoys would not step out again nor disappoint him. That they would be good and obedient, knowing that the son and heir of the Malfoy line was his prisoner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Draco Malfoy did not deserve to have the mark of Voldemort on his skin any more than Hermione deserved to have that hated word marked into hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so, when she had presented to him her findings, books spread on the table, parchment and tests and ideas, she had expected that he would be elated, pleased, ready to finally have it gone from him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, he stared at her in shock, his jaw dropped, unmoving. It was the first time, since that courtroom, that she had seen any real emotion on his face. Up until this point, Draco had spent the entirety of Eighth Year trying to fade into the background, attempting to go unnoticed, eyes lowered, head dropping, and shoulders shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, he just stared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you… is this okay?” she finally asked, her eyes wide in horror as she realized that, maybe… maybe he didn’t want it off. “I’m sorry if I overstepped, I just thought you might-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You did all of this for me?” he asked, interrupting Hermione’s rambled apology. His knees looked weak, given how he was wavering where he stood, and his hand had reached out to grab the back of the nearest chair, as though he needed help to keep himself upright.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I… sort of,” she said, and there was another bit of rambling on the tip of her tongue about how her research had led her there, but then she felt unable to say anything about it, about Dolohov and Bellatrix and her own aches and pains. Instead, all she saw was the way his left arm was lifting up, at the way he was now looking down at it with a relief in his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just… when I saw information on magical blood tattoos, I thought about how… how you didn’t deserve to have to live with that mark on your arm. The proof that you were a victim of him, just like the rest of us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Draco’s face seemed to crack, and Hermione was frozen where she stood, watching as first one, and then another tear fell down his face. He seemed to be sucking in air, gasping for it, and then she saw it, his eyes starting to dissociate - Occlumency. He was trying to block off his feelings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He lost the battle, though, and she watched as he reached in his pocket, grabbing out a handkerchief. He rubbed at both eyes and then sniffed, seeming to give up on a magical way to control his emotions, and instead now trying to suck them all back down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” he finally said. “Might we… continue this discussion at another point?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She could tell that he was trying to save face, and she recognized it, saw herself in it - he was losing control of his emotions, and needed to let go. She knew that, whatever friendship they had begun this year, that they were not close enough for her to be privy to his tears, but still…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The fact that he was even still here and not disappearing was enough proof that she had done well, that maybe… maybe she was another step closer to that level of trust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course,” she said, and she stepped closer to him, reaching for his forearm. “Draco-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her hand touched his lower left arm, where she knew the mark was, and he froze, eyes wide again as she said his name, as she touched where Voldemort had marked him. He did not move, did not say a word, just stared at her, as though she had cast </span>
  <em>
    <span>Immobulus</span>
  </em>
  <span> on him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t deserve to have that Mark on your arm,” she finally whispered. “You deserve a second chance. To move on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stared at her, eyes still wide, and she finally released his arm, moving to step back-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His own hand reached out, grabbing her arm, tugging her back to him. She took a few stumbled steps until her body was half falling against his, but he kept her upright, their bodies touching as his neck bent to look down at her, his silver eyes looking deep into her brown ones.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you, Hermione.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She could feel the words on his skin, could feel how close they were, close enough to kiss, even, and she had no idea why that thought passed through her mind, but then he was pulling away, turning, walking from her-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She finally caught her breath, a blush spreading over her cheeks, and she turned to look at the stack of papers and books and parchments and tomes…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She needed to start brewing, then, so that whenever they had this conversation again… they could both start off new, and see where their second chance led them.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>You can find me on <a href="https://melanoradrood.tumblr.com">tumblr</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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